Doctor Who

I thought I'd share my views on the final episode of the first new series of Doctor Who. I have to say first of all, that Christopher Eccleston impressed me so much in the role that, despite being highly skeptical of what he could bring to the role; I now find myself thinking the programme has lost a great asset.

Here are the things I liked:

• The Doctor sacrificing himself by absorbing TARDIS energy before it killed Rose
• Rose's turning of the tide by using TARDIS power.
• Cute Girl on Space Station 5
• The way daleks still say exterminate (albeit silently) in the vacuum of space.
• Jack's attempt to rally people
• Witnessing higher functions of the TARDIS like the defensive shield
  

Things I disliked:

• The daleks killing the cute girl on Station 5
• The way Rose was revealed as Bad Wolf, seemed forced.

Things I'm not sure about:

• Is station 5 a "tip of the hat" to Babylon 5, or is it just coincidence?
• David Tennant
  

I thought the writing of this episode was a bit sporadic. Sometimes it was great, other times it was not. I liked the twist of Rose being Bad Wolf... but not how we arrived at it. That was shockingly poor. There's no explanation as to how Rose was leaving herself messages. I assume she did it by using the power she had acquired to muck about with time itself. If that is so, what else might she have done? She wiped out the daleks and she raised at least one dead person. Could she possibly have restored Gallifrey and the timelords? That's be cool. I also liked the idea of the TARDIS being souped up a bit, bery funky.

Losing Christopher Eccleston has come as a disappointment to me. He had firmly established himself in the role in the short time he had. He played a blinder! When Tennant materialised, he seemed to lack the same level of gravitas. However, lets not judge a man on two lines of dialogue, lets see what he brings to the role. It could have been worse, he could have become Ant or Dec!

I don't think Russell T Davies understands sci-fi as much as he makes out. Technically, Gallifrey can never cease to exist, because the TARDIS can travel sideways in time as well. There are infinite alternate timelines for Earth and Gallifrey, a time war would never destroy all those realities, just the timeline for one of the possible Gallifreys. Complicated I know, but that's time theory for you.

Bottom line is, it's supposed to be on at a time when children can appreciate it. It's important not to get too complicated, and at least as Eccleston said... they stuck to hard hitting plot twists so that children can learn to appreciate good drama when they are older, and not bland stuff.
That's Eccleston's legacy as he departs the role.